Category: Historicity

Like John Dominic Crossan, Bart Ehrman is a biblical scholar who denies that Jesus was raised from the dead. But also like Crossan, Ehrman, along with practically all other modern scholars, is convinced of certain historical facts about Jesus. When he says “virtually all scholars of antiquity” in the quote below, Ehrman indeed means “all” – he is not just talking about Christian scholars.

“Despite [an] enormous range of opinion [on Jesus], there are several points on which virtually all scholars of antiquity agree. Jesus was a Jewish man, known to be a preacher and teacher, who was crucified (a Roman form of execution) in Jerusalem during the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was the governor of Judea. […T]his is the view of nearly every trained scholar on the planet…”

It isn’t just bestselling atheists like Dawkins who make this faux pas. A measured journalist like ABC Radio National’s Michael Cathcart recently ventured unknowingly into the heavyweight ring and got caught out. In an otherwise excellent interview with Salman Rushdie, Cathcart remarked, “There’s no doubt at all that Mohammed was a real person, whereas Jesus is a person who is at least ambiguous in the question of whether he existed or not.” I say “caught out” because Cathcart promptly received a gentle correction from two of Australia’s best known Roman historians, Professors Alanna Nobbs and Edwin Judge. “In our judgment,” they wrote, “the second part of your statement is quite far from reality.” They explained, “While historical and theological debates remain about the actions and significance of this figure, his fame as a teacher, and his crucifixion under the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate, may be described as historically certain.”

Matt Rawlings is a Teaching Pastor at Christ’s Community Church in Portsmouth, OH and an Attorney and a Regional Director of Leadership Development for Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal ministry.